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I understand that we have to have advertisements on this site to pay for it all. But do we REALLY have to have that annoying Audi A6 ad that pops-up all the time? It drives me crazy.
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All pop-ups are annoying - and guaranteed to make me determined NOT to buy the product. The worst ones are the animations which can't be killed until they've done their ten seconds of twisting and twirling. The same consumer resistance applies to those irritating bits that fall out of magazines and newspapers. They go straight in the bin - unread.
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It's the price we pay to use the backroom. Seems ok to me. Of course it would be nice if HJ could find a better way to generate income, but there you go, life's tough.
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Leif,
Long time no talk! I agree with you entirely. HJ has to make the site pay - he has made that adbundantly clear. If us Back Roomers merely have to put up with a few 'annoying' pop-ups then so be it. It is a small price to pay for the wealth of knowledge and experience available on tap here.
I would respectfully suggest that HisHonur remembers this before another post bemoaning this excellent site appears.
Cheers
Rob
"Lord of Lard"
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>>> The same consumer resistance applies to those irritating bits that fall out of magazines and newspapers. They go straight in the bin - unread. <<<
When I'm travelling, and extra rubbish is a pain, I pick the magazine up from the newsagent's rack sufficiently carefully (just hold the top of the front cover and leave all the other pages loose) that all the junk gets left on the shelf!
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I would respectfully suggest that HisHonur remembers this before another post bemoaning this excellent site appears.
I am not knocking the site, which I think is excellent and I have nothing against advertising. The static ads are there and I can click on them or not, as I wish. But the pop-up ad I find intensely annoying. Fair enough if it appears just once but it seems to pop up several times in a session which I find intrusive. It's not even a very good ad!
Still, if it helps pay for the site I shall stop complaining.
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Maybe a pop up Bentley ad would be more to your tastes? (Meant in jest.) BTW Doesn't the new Bentley look good? I think it will sell lots. Why or why do UK firms have to get taken over by Germans before they can produce nice cars e.g. Rover 75, Bentley and Mini.
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WHAT pop up ad?
Never seen it - can Zone Alarm or my Hotmail security settings be depriving me of this?
Matt35.
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Dont close it down and then it wont pop up again.
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You can configure ZonaAlarm Pro to do this. Not sure about the free version.
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JohnL
It is the free version I am using so I must have done it by accident sometime.
Matt35.
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Advertising may be annoying, but without it you wouldn't be here at all.
We *need* people to see the advertising, and we *need* people to follow the links.
If everybody avoided the ads, then the companies wouldn't get any benefit, then they wouldn't pay us, then we wouldn't be here, and then you won't see the Backroom never mind the ads.
The alternative is that HJ and others fund your enjoyment out of their own pockets. Firstly that doesn't seem fair, and secondly it isn't going to happen.
So get over it. Please.
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Mark: so if we use third party software to block pop-up adds, does that mean that income to HJ is reduced?
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>>Mark: so if we use third party software to block pop-up adds, does that mean that income to HJ is reduced?
Yes.
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One option - Use the Mozilla Browser, this allows you to right-click a popup and block it.
More importantly, it doesn't look much of an advert for the A6. Look at the title in the popup window. Does this mean you are spending all that money on a defunct car?
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Of course nothing is free - but do the advertisers really think that the annoyance factor of their ads will do anything other than alienate their intended recipients ?
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I use Zone alarm free version and i still get th epop up at the start.
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>>but do the advertisers really think that........
I really don't know what they think. However, just so long as they keep thinking it then we'll be fine.
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This topic surfaces every few months, and as always, the answer is that we have to accept that in life there is no free lunch.
I for my part try to click through to one or two ads once a week to help "pay HJ" for my access to this site.
As Mark says, just killing the pop-ups could in effect amount to killing the future of the site. And it is not enough to allow the ad to appear, you ought to really click on them as often as you can manage or tolerate.
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So is this site run at a profit or just at cost?
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Agree with eMBe.
Even though I don't have the means right now to buy anything from any of these pop-up sites/links, I do make a point of clicking on them and lingering a while in whatever place they take me to.
Can't believe any regular user of this site would be trying to disenable them, bearing in mind what we all know about the financial benefit they bring to the site and therefore to us all.
HF
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I think part of the problem is the relevancy of the ads. I doubt very much if very many of the users of this site are remotely interested in buying a brand new Audi A6. However, if an ad popped up that, say, promised a way of getting £2 off your next purchase of a can of Castrol GTX, not only would I not mind it popping up, I'd be clicking through to get what it was offering.
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Good point, king arthur,
If I could get £1 off a chamois, some car polish and cloths and wheel cleaner TODAY, I would place an order to save me driving to Halfords.
I reckon someone offering oil, filters, and commonly used parts on this site could do some good business and bring some income to the website.
I guess that there are such sites in existence, but doubt if many of them have the audience that HJ has on a regular basis.
Maybe HJ can do a deal linking us to a site???
Matt35.
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So is this site run at a profit or just at cost?
Neither, so far, I think. I would be surprised if any of HJ's insiders give you the commercial data.
If you look up past discussion on this, it will become apparent that the ads were introduced to try to stop the drain on "investors". Also, IIRC, HJ said hehad to let Martyn to save on his costs. Finally, I am not personally aware of any internet operation that has made a profit on all the funds invested to date. Allegedly some (e.g. Lastminute, friends-united, and such like?) are just beginning to make operational-profits only.
PS. I always access the D.Tel site via HJ.
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I much prefer a popup to those absolutely awful flash-type ads which cover your entire screen when using What Car or Parker's website.
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There are a lot of porn sites that make a lot of profit from the web. I have heard that porn is the most popular use of the internet. I am sure there are many other sites that make money. I can think of many such as unbeatable.co.uk and 7dayshop.com that I use that must make shed loads. These though tend to be sites that developed from established shops and mail order operations. I think the ones that are losing money tend to be ones that started as internet only operations and which need time to establish a presence.
I think the problem with this site is that it does not sell anything. Establishing a paid cars for sale advert section would generate income but I am sure such obvious ideas have been considered.
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I’m more than happy to deal with a new pop-up advert, given the amazing user-friendliness of the forum.
I mean, imagine if you couldn’t search effectively, imagine if you had people moaning when your topic had already been posted in the past, imagine if there were ‘admins’ correcting spelling and grammar…;)
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